Land and Water

Land and Water is an Earth Science kit, designed for 4-5 grades. Land and Water is rarely taught, as most lessons involve working with large bins of soil and water, and few teachers are comfortable with the potential mess from the students making mud in the classroom.

Fellows Who Have Taught This Kit:

Charlie
Ben

Overview:

Problem: Land and water are too big for us to experiment on. How can we do experiments to study Land and Water?
Answer: By building and using models.

Lesson 1: Pre-Assessment

Preparation:

1. Prepare science notebooks
2. Make two posters, which we will fill out as a class:
   1. What we know about land and water
   2. What we want to know about land and water

Procedure:

1. Introduce the concept of Science Notebooks
   1. Emphasize the need to date every page.
2. Fill out the "What we know" poster (see above):
   1. First, have each student write in their science notebooks, 3 things they know about land and water.
   2. Then, have the students share what they wrote, and fill out the poster chart.
3. Show the 4 photos from the photo cards.
   1. Grand Canyon, showing the river at the bottom of the deep canyon.
      1. How did the canyon form?
         1. Some students will realize that the river formed the canyon.
         2. A few other questions to help them along:
            1. What did this land look like before the canyon was formed? (Most will understand that it used to be flat).
            2. Where is the land that used to be there?
   2. Tree with exposed roots at Bryce Canyon National Park

      1. A cropped version of Photo #2

      2. Why can you see the roots of this tree?
         1. Most 4th-graders I (Charlie) worked with seemed to quickly get the idea that when the tree first grew, the roots were underground, but that later the roots were exposed because the soil has been removed.
         2. This is an excellent place to introduce the word erosion.
         3. The kit suggests that the students might have trouble with this one because the photo doesn't show any water.
      3. When it rains, what do you think happens to the soil near the tree?
   3. Waterfall with a stream at its base, Jasper National Park (Alberta, Canada).
      1. Why do you think there is a waterfall on this land?
         1. Most students will answer "because the stream is going over a cliff." It takes a lot more effort to get the students to realize that the stream created the cliff.
         2. Describe the speed of the water in this picture.
   4. Clouds, snowy mountains, and meandering stream, Banff National Park (Alberta, Canada)
      1. Name all the places in this picture where you see water in any form.
         1. Answer: In the stream (liquid water), on the mountains (snow), in the clouds (droplets).
      2. Describe the water cycle using this picture.
      1. Hint: Where did each kind of water come from?
         1. The water in the stream came from melting of the snow.
         2. The snow came from snowing, from the clouds.
         3. The clouds? (This one may be tough for the kids).

Lesson 2: The Water Cycle: Modeling Land and Water

Question: Where does water come from? Where does it go? (refer to photo card 4 in the kit)
Answer: The water cycle: water from the ocean warms and evaporates, moves over land, cools and condenses into clouds, then precipitates as rain, snow, hail, etc. The precipitation collects into streams and flows back into the ocean, completing the cycle.

How can we model this? This is today's lesson.